Hanger assembly for sliding vehicle door



' Sept. 16, 1969 w. o. NYSTROM HANGER ASSEMBLY FOR SLIDING VEHICLE DOOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed ApriI 5, 1967 INVENTOR: WILFORD OJNYSTROM AT YS wwwww Sept. 16, 1969 w. o. NYSTROM 3,466,698

HANGER ASSEMBLY FOR SLIDING VEHICLE DOOR Filed April 5, 19s? 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 H9 5 v FIG. 6

H 3| 21 lift- Law Lima +6 FIG.7 If] M W Ml 24 I5 w 290 I3 29b\m '2 FIGS INVENTOR.

WILFOR D O. NYSTROM ATT'YS United States Patent 3,466,698 HANGER ASSEMBLY FOR SLIDING VEHICLE DOOR Wilford O. Nystrom, Palos Park, Ill., assignor to Morton Manufacturing Company, Chicago, 11]., a corporation of Illinois Filed Apr. 5, 1967, Ser. No. 628,584 Int. Cl. Ed 13/02 US. Cl. 16-87 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A hanger assembly for a sliding vehicle door. A U-shaped elongated channel is secured to the top of the door with the bottom of the channel being disposed downwardly. An elongated hanger bar is slidably mounted above the doorway of the vehicle and extends downwardly to be received in the channel. A bar retainer is received in the channel adjacent one end of the hanger bar and is restrained against vertical movement by an L-shaped foot portion which extends downwardly through a slot provided in the bottom of the channel and engages the lower surface of the channel bottom. A bolt is threaded through the bar retainer and extends into a recess provided in one end of the hanger bar. The other end of the hanger bar is provided with a transverse notch which engages a pin extending between the sides of the channel. The bolt is tightened to secure the hanger bar within the channel between the bolt and the channel pin.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a hanger assembly for sliding vehicle doors used on subway cars and the like and is an improvement over the hanger assembly illustrated in my copending application, Ser. N0. 559,630; filed June 22, 1966', now U.S. Patent No. 3,407,536.

Sliding vehicle doors are generally mounted by securing the upper portion of the door to a hanger bar which is slidably mounted above the vehicle doorway. The door is lifted upwardly until a U-shaped channel on the top of the door receives the bar. The door is then maintained in this position until attaching means on the door can be operated to anchor the hanger bar within the channel. Since the door may be operated many hundreds of times a day and may be subjected to severe jarring during operation, it is essential that the door be rigidly secured to the hanger bar to prevent rattling, jamming, etc. However, since the door must be held in a raised position while it is being secured to the hanger bar, the attaching operation generally requires two or more men. One person would have extreme difiiculty in lifting a door and maintaining the necessary alignment between the door and the hanger bar while the attaching means such as bolts, hooks, and the like is positioned.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The inventive hanger assembly enables the door to be quickly and tightly secured to the hanger bar by even a single person. The door is lifted so that the hanger bar is received in the door channel and a bar retainer is then inserted in the channel with its foot portion extending through slots provided in the bottom of the channel. A bolt is already threaded through the bar retainer, and only a few more turns of the bolt are required to engage the bolt in the hanger bar recess and tightly secure the hanger bar between the bolt and a channel retaining pin. The retainer bar and the channel pin are both carried by the channel, and the channel is the only part of the vehicle door that is stressed by the hanger assembly. The door may be just as readily removed by merely turning the bolt a few turns so that the bar retainer may be removed from the channel. I

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a fragmentary side elevational view partly in cross section of the inventive hanger assembly just prior to the attachment of the door to the hanger bar;

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1 showing the door secured to the hanger bar;

FIG. 4 is an end view of FIG. .3;

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the bar retainer and bolt;

FIG. 6 is a view taken along the line 6-6 of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a view taken along the line 77 of FIG. 1 with the hanger bar and bar retainer removed; and

FIG. 8 is an exploded side view illustrating another em bodiment of the door and hanger bar.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 7, the numeral 10 designates generally a sliding door for a vehicle such as a subway car. Since the lower portion of the door 10 forms no part of my invention, only the upper portion of the door is shown. A more detailed description of a sliding vehicle door may be found in my copending application, Ser. No. 559,630, filed June 22, 1966. The door 10 is generally defined by vertically extending side channels 11 and 12 and horizontally extending top channel 13. A bottom channel (not shown) is also usually provided. The door channels are secured together as by welding, and facing sheets 15 are secured to the channels to provide the front and back of the door.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, top channel 13 is seen to be generally U-shaped, having a downwardly disposed bottom 16 and upwardly extending sides 17. Hanger bar 18 is received within top channel 13 and is provided with longitudinally extending grooves 19 in the upper portion thereof for the receipt of ball bearings 20 (FIG. 4) provided as part of the usual hanger arrangement generally designated 21. Hanger arrangement 21 is secured to the vehicle above the doorway thereof, and, although only a single hanger arrangement 21 is shown, several hanger arrangements are usually provided to support the hanger bar for sliding movement into and out of the doorway.

One end of hanger bar 18 is provided with a recess or terminal bore 22 and the other end is provided with a transverse V-shaped slot 23. The hanger bar is rigidly secured within top channel 13 by means of channel retaining pin 24, which extends between the sides 17 of the top channel and which is received by the hanger bar slot 23, and bolt 25, which is received within recess 22. Bolt 25 extends through bar retainer 26 and is threadedly engaged therein.

Bar retainer 26 includes elongated body portion 27 which is generally rectangular in transverse cross-section (FIG. 6) and foot portions 28. The width of the body portion is preferably approximately the same as the distance between channel sides 17. The foot portions are seen to be generally L-shaped and extend through slots 29a and 29b provided in the bottom 16 of the top channel. As the bolt is rotated to engage the hanger bar 18, the foot portions 28 of the bar retainer engage the bottom 16 of the top channel 13. When the bolt is fully tightened, the hanger bar is securely retained in the top channel by channel pin 24 and bolt 25, and the foot portions 28 engage the lower surface of channel bottom 16 to hold bar retainer 26 within the top channel 13. The foot portions are advantageously provided with inclined faces 28a so that the force exerted in tightening the bolt tightens the engagement of the hanger bar between the pin 24 and the 3 bolt 25. Although two foot portions are shown, the bar retainer may be provided with only a single foot portion. The surface of recess 22 preferably has about the same contour as the surface of the end of the bolt so that the bolt is received snugly by the recess.

Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, the preferred embodiment of bar retainer 26 is seen to include a longitudinally extending bore 30 and a slot 31 extending transversely through the body portion 27 to interrupt bore 30. Bore 30 may have a smooth inner surface with a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of bolt 25. Received in slot 31 of body portion 27 is nut 32 having a central threaded bore 33 which registers with bore 30 and which retains the bolt 25 within the bar retainer. Considerable cost savings can be achieved by extruding the body portion and foot portion integrally from aluminum. The bore 30 may be drilled, and it is unnecessary to perform a threading operation. Alternatively, nut 32 may be welded on one end of body portion 27 rather than being received in a transverse slot provided in the body portion, or nut 32 and slot 31 may be eliminated by providing bore 30 with threads to retain the bolt. The use of aluminum also reduces the weight of the bar retainer.

OPERATION When it is desired to attach the door to the hanger bar 18, the door is merely lifted so that the hanger bar is received by top channel 13 and channel retaining pin 24 is received by notch 23 in the hanger bar. Bolt 25 has previously been threaded into bar retainer 26, and after the hanger bar is positioned within the top channel 13, the bar retainer 26 is inserted into the top channel as shown in FIG. 1. The foot portions of the bar retainer drop through the slots 29a and 29b to bring bore 30 and hanger bar recess 22 into approximate alignment. The length of the hanger bar is such that it extends from channel pin 24 to approximately the first slot 2% in the channel bottom 16, and only a few additional turns of the bolt are required to position the end of the bolt in recess 22.

To facilitate tightening of the bolt, the bolt may be provided with an Allen head 25a and the bottom of side channel 12 may be cut away as at 34 (FIG. 4) to expose the bolt. As the bolt 25 is tightened the L-shaped foot portions 28 are urged against the channel bottom 16 and the underlapping relationship of the foot portions with the lower surface of channel bottom 16 prevents the bar retainer from being withdrawn from channel 13. The V- shape of slot 23 ensures that the retaining pin 24 will be received securely by the slot, and the door may thus be rigidly mounted on the hanger bar. The attachment between the door and the hanger bar is effected entirely within top channel 13, and any stresses created by the attachment exist only in the top channel, thereby avoiding any undesirable distortion that might otherwise occur.

Attachment of the door to the hanger bar may be somewhat facilitated by the use of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 8. Hanger bar 18 is provided with longitudinally extending slots 35 adjacent the bottom thereof, and the sides 17 of top channel 13 are provided with inwardly extending ribs 36. When the door is to be attached, the ribs 36 are inserted in slots 35 and the hanger bar is slid longitudinally into top channel 13' to engage channel pin 24'. Before the bar retainer is inserted, the door is supported by the ribs 36 which engage the lower sides of slots 35, and the bar retainer bore may be more readily aligned with hanger bar recess 22'. However, when the bolt is tightened, the door is supported solely by the bolt and the pin 24', and the ribs 36 do not engage the sides of slots 35.

I claim:

1. A hanger assembly for a sliding door comprising a generally U-shaped elongated channel secured to the top of said door, a slidably mounted elongated hanger bar received in said channel, a bar retainer received in said channel adjacent one end of said hanger bar, means on said channel and said bar retainer for preventing upward movement of said bar retainer, said bar retainer having a longitudinally extending bore therethrough, a bolt extending through said bore and threadedly engaged therein, one end of said -bolt being received by a recess provided in said one end of the hanger bar, the other end of the hanger bar engaging retaining means on said channel, whereby said hanger bar is removably secured within said channel, said first-mentioned means being provided by a slot in the bottom of said channel and an L-shaped foot extending downwardly from said bar retainer, said foot extending through said slot and engaging said channel bottom, said retaining means comprising a pin extending between the sides of said channel, the other end of said hanger bar being provided with a transverse slot which receives said pin.

2. A hanger assembly for a sliding door comprising a generally U-shaped elongated channel secured to the top of said door, a slidably mounted elongated hanger bar received in said channel, a bar retainer received in said channel adjacent one end of said hanger bar, means on said channel and said bar retainer for preventing upward movement of said bar retainer, said bar retainer having a longtiudinally extending bore therethrough, a bolt extending through said bore and threadedly engaged therein, one end of said bolt being received by a recess provided in said one end of the hanger bar, the other end of the hanger bar engaging retaining means on said channel, whereby said hanger bar is removably secured within said channel, said bar retainer including a body portion, a foot portion, and a nut, said body portion having a transversely extending slot therethrough, said bore being interrupted by said slot, said nut being received by said slot, and having a threaded central bore providing a portion of said bar retainer bore, said first-mentioned means being provided by a slot in the bottom of said channel and said foot portion, said foot portion extending through said slot and engaging said channel bottom.

3. The hanger assembly of claim 2 in which said body portion and said foot portion are integral and are formed of extruded aluminum.

4. A hanger assembly for a sliding door comprising a generally Ushaped elongated channel secured to the top of said door, a slidably mounted elongated hanger bar received in said channel, a bar retainer received in said channel adjacent one end of said hanger bar, means on said channel and said bar retainer for preventing upward movement of said bar retainer said bar retainer having a longitudinally extending bore therethrough, a bolt extending through said bore and threadedly engaged therein, one end of said bolt being received by a recess provided in said one end of the hanger bar, the other end of the hanger bar engaging retaining means on said channel, whereby said hanger bar is removably secured within said channel, said bar retainer including a bodyportion, a foot portion, and a nut, said nut being secured to one end of said body portion, said bore extending through said body portion and said nut, the portion of said bore provided by said nut being internally threaded, said first-mentioned means being provided by a slot in the bottom of said channel and said foot portion, said foot portion extending through said slot and engaging said channel bottom.

5. A hanger assembly for a sliding vehicle door comprising a generally U-shaped elongated channel secured to the top of said door, the bottom of said channel being disposed downwardly, an elongated hanger bar slidably mounted on the vehicle, said hanger bar extending downwardly and being received in said channel, a bar retainer received in said channel adjacent one end of said hanger bar, said bar retainer including a body portion and a generally L-shaped foot portion, said foot portion extending through a slot provided in the bottom of said channel and engaging the lower surface of said bottom, said bar retainer being provided with a longitudinally extending bore through said body portion, a bolt extending 5 through said bore and threadedly retained therein, one end of said bolt being received by a recess provided in said one end of the hanger bar, the other end of said hanger bar engaging retaining means on said channel, said bolt being tightened to secure said hanger bar between said retaining means and said bolt.

6. The hanger assembly of claim 5 in which said body portion is generally rectangular in transverse cross section and has a transversely extending slot therethrough, said bore being interrupted by said slot, said bar retainer including a nut received by said slot and having a threaded central bore providing a portion of said bar retainer bore.

7. The hanger assembly of claim 6 in which said body 2,963,753 12/1960 Seaburg 49-409 3,089,203 5/1963 Roselius 49-409 BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner 10 A. M. CALVERT, Assistant Examiner -U.S. Cl. X.R. 49409 

